Heart of the Resonant: Book 1: Pulse (Resonant Series)

by B. C. Handler

  After chewing on the inside of her cheek for a while, she said, “You're right.” Eva’s twisted face of anger flushed away. Tilting her head back, she looked up into the sky, drawing in another breath of the damp, cool air. When she looked back, she had on that determined face that looked like she could take on anything, the face that I’ve been starting to admire. “Let’s head south so we can figure out how far we’re from Scintillion.”

  I retrieved my sword from the ground and smiled. “I have no idea which way south is, so lead the way.”

  Eva gave me a look, then shook her head. “Just when I started to think better of you, you had to go and remind me you’re an idiot.”

  Eva walked to my side, taking my hand in hers and holding it towards the sky. Eva and I have never been this close before; it was so strange that my cheeks burned.

  “See the red one?” she asked, snapping me back to reality.

  I looked down where she had my hand sighted. There was a myriad of stars in the sky, way more from my old world, but, sure enough, a bright red star stood out.

  “Yeah,” I replied, “the one next to the flickering one, right?”

  “It’s Fripul’s torch; it always burns in the south.” Eva broke away and fixed me with a serious look. “Stay close and keep quiet. Got it?”

  I gave her another smile and a mock salute. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Chapter 18

  Eva and I moved silently through the forest for about half an hour, putting as much distance from the killing ground where the portal took us. After things cooled down, it dawned on me that I traveled through a goddamned magic portal. Of course, it would actually be my second time. I never did get around to asking Neepa how we got from my world to hers. Well, not that it wasn’t something thought of before, just one of those things I’ve been burying. In fact, there were a lot of questions regarding home, questions I wasn’t ready to ask. The portals will be one of the first questions I ask when I see her again.

  Soon. Eva and I. We’ll both be seeing Neepa soon.

  We stopped once we got to a small clearing. Eva spotted the tallest tree, making quick work of scaling the branches with nimble efficiency. I lost sight of her once she went about thirty feet into the dense leaves. The towering timber stood at an impressive hundred feet.

  Forests must’ve looked like this before woodsmen were industrialized.

  After an uncomfortable stretch of alone time on the ground, the sound of leaves rustling and bark snapping ushered Eva’s descent. She hung from the last branch with one arm, giving me a good show of her strength to body ratio, then landed on the ground with a soft thud.

  “Well?”

  Eva wiped some sweat from her brow, then leaned back onto the trunk.

  “I could see Scintillion, but we’re at least half a day’s travel.”

  Well, fuck.

  My pounding head wasn’t happy to hear that. Though, bitching about it wouldn’t make the journey ahead any easier. Well, maybe a little.

  “Charming night for a stroll,” I said dryly.

  Eva fixed me with an incensed look, but commented nothing as she pushed off the tree.

  We continued our way through the creepy woods where eldritch-horror-supporting whack jobs may be lurking. With their pet werewolves, of course. That thought had been bugging me since we started through the woods. Try as I might to put on a tough front, more than once did I get startled by a random branch snapping or by the sound of some animal I’ve never heard of. In fact, none of the sounds of the gloomy forest were recognizable. All sounds were foreign, or abstract approximations of things loosely recognized. Like the sound of crickets; chirps droning at a higher frequency with a broken cadence of a rhythm.

  But, as we continued on in silence for another hour and a half unmolested, the weight of unease lessened. Granted, I was miles away from civilization in some spooky woods, so there was a certain point where I couldn’t relax. But, as things are now, I was feeling mostly calm.

  Having Eva near was comforting, despite her rough edges. From what I’ve noticed, Eva tended to get pretty heated, not wasting a second's hesitation going right into the heart of a fight or argument, but she always had a firm handle on things. The fight with the werewolves wouldn’t have gone as smoothly if it weren’t for her efforts. Eva’s bolts and knives flew with dedicated purpose, either blinding or crippling the beasts we fought. She was a damn good marksman.

  Even when she walked ahead of me, she strode with confidence in every step. I found my gaze drawn to her powerful, swaying hips, then quickly shook my head clear.

  Now’s not the time.

  Hard not to stare when she was leading the way; Eva was not as femininely beautiful as Neepa, but she was alluring in her own unique way. Bearing the contours of a developed woman with the added firmness of muscle padding out her figure. The scars riddling her body and the resting bitch face gave her an air of intimidation, one that made being near her a challenge earlier. Now, it’s a constant I’ve grown to recognize and feel comforted by while in this constantly changing world.

  Plus, in my poor defense, focusing on her butt kept me from focusing on the vague shadows surrounding us. It’s human nature to assume the worst is lurking out in the unknown.

  The darkness began to recede and a dark-blue gloom flushed the forest. It was still a few hours before dawn. At least we could see a little further ahead of us.

  A short while later, we came to a small stream cutting through the forest. While it was important for us to keep moving, we wouldn’t be able to make as good time if we got dehydrated, which I certainly was. I dunked my head into the stream and drank heavily. I know you’re supposed to at least boil flowing water to kill any bacteria, but the stream was crystal clear and the water certainly tasted pure.

  When I came up for air, I noticed all the dried, crusty blood on my hands and forearms. Suddenly feeling filthy, I washed up the best I could, going so far as to grab a flat stone to aid in scrubbing. The flesh of my arms pink from scrubbing, the blood rushed down the stream diluting into nothing.

  The same couldn’t be said of the memory.

  Semi-clean and with my thirst quenched, I fell back on the ground and gave my muscles a much needed rest. My feet sang from the relief when the weight was lifted. Nothing short of a miracle that I made it this far barefoot without cutting my feet on something; really should've grabbed my boots.

  Eva sat a few feet from me, quietly sipping water from her cupped hands. With her wet hands, she wiped away soot from her face and arms. She rose when she was done and hopped over the stream towards some bushes. After she grabbed a handful of leaves, she hopped back, then started chewing them up.

  Eva spit out a wad of green mush and held it towards me.

  “I’m good; the bleeding stopped,” I said with a grimace.

  She rolled her eyes and crawled behind me. “Yeah, and I bet your head’s throbbing after a night of heavy drinking with Neepa. Hold still.”

  Eva got me on that one. I didn’t fight when she craned my head down and felt her fingers brushing my hair away from the cut. The mush she applied stung, making me suck in a sharp breath through my teeth. The stinging subsided, then the hot throbbing that’s been plaguing me was replaced with a nice cooling sensation. The chill spread until my head didn’t feel like a dumbbell.

  “Thanks,” I said as Eva crawled back to where she was sitting.

  “Thank Neepa. She’s the one who showed me this.” Eva laid back on the grass and lifted up her dirty tunic, revealing her trim abs. She took the last of the mush out of her mouth and applied it liberally to the cuts on her hip. The muscles on her stomach contracted when she applied the field medicine, but aside from that, she didn’t utter a peep.

  Eva lowered her tunic and lowered her head deeper into the pillow of grass and leaves.

  “She and I wandered these woods together for years,” Eva went on. “We would gather herbs, berries, and mushrooms with Olea holding our hands as children. As I got older a
nd better with a bow, I took up hunting. Neepa tried, too, but she couldn’t hit the broadside of Scintillion’s wall. It was okay, though. She was so fascinated with plants that she knew what was medicine, what was edible, and what was poisonous at just a glance.”

  Eva closed her eyes and, for the first time since I met her, chuckled.

  “Once when I was hunting a wounded bucklorn, I blindly chased after it into a bush only for the bush to be hiding a shallow gully. It was a big fall. When I got home, I was all bloody from having hit my head and scraping both my knees. Neepa cried like a baby the moment she saw me, frantically grabbing medicine because she thought I was dying. Since then, whenever we went into the woods, she would always point out this leaf or that root, lecturing me on what to use if I ever got hurt again.”

  I smirked. “Even as a kid she had a big heart, huh?”

  “So big it smothered me,” Eva agreed.

  I chuckled lightly, almost unaware of the smile that slipped on my face. Knowing that tiny bit of Eva’s life was pleasant; it was nice to have a decent conversation for once.

  “She’s probably worried sick. We’ve rested long enough; let’s get going.” Eva climbed to her feet with ease, moving like someone who hadn’t fought with nightmarish beasts.

  Not quite matching her fluid ease, I stood. A long rest would’ve been nice; didn’t exactly get enough sleep to begin with. But the sooner we’re out of these woods, the better. And I’m sure there’ll be a bitter green juice that’ll fix me right up. Imagining Neepa’s embrace made the next few steps easier.

  Together, we navigated the dense forest, weaving around impressive trees, and plant life that featured some daunting characteristics and colors. One such specimen was a sort of flower with a central stalk and petals of teal that swirled in an almost spiral pattern. When I got a little too close to what looked like a rosebush with orange and green petals, Eva jerked me out of its path by my collar. She said a scratch from the thorns could cause dysentery that, if untreated, would kill me.

  I would literally shit myself to death.

  With the thorn bush committed to memory, we trudged on.

  The chirping of birds welcoming the new day surrounded us. Finally, after hearing them so often without seeing them, one was so kind enough to perch itself on a branch overhead as it sang. It had a black, lustrous plumage, but the tail feathers were a beautiful array of blue and purple, fanning out in such a way that made the creature look like a miniature peacock.

  With the activity of animals and how the gray sky looked overhead, I’d say dawn would break within the hour. My brief excursions in the forest allowed me to see its unmatched beauty during the day; a little sunshine would make the trees less oppressive.

  A new chirping trill sound somewhere to the left, drawing my attention because of the musical quality to the call. Before I could spot anything, Eva jerked me against a tree by my collar again.

  “Did I almost step in another—”

  Eva clamped a hand over my mouth and pulled me close to her into the nook of the tree. Emerald eyes gave me a hard, wide look, and she pressed a finger to her lips. My eyes widened in horror, too, when the sound of snapping twigs and rustling leaves grew in volume.

  Something… many somethings were racing towards us.

  Eva drew a knife, then slowly, quietly, coaxed me down with her to the ground, where the eroded soil left a bigger space for us to crouch in the towering timber’s exposed roots.

  My heart threatened to leap up my throat as we huddled tightly together like rodents cowering from something higher in the food chain. The rustling grew closer. Then stopped.

  The silent tension in the air was so great that my ears rung. I dare not breathe.

  With a violent snapping of dried leaves and sticks not ten feet away, a form leapt into view. Another corrupted beastkin.

  My heart stopped and Eva’s body became rigid as stone. The monster had leapt a short distance ahead with its hairy, sinewy back to us, and the only thing between us and it were a few narrow saplings, each no bigger than my wrist. The monster's head moved from side to side, and up and down in rapid, jerky movements.

  Another landed somewhere close on the other side of the tree, out of view. More could be heard further off in either direction.

  An eternity seemed to pass, the ringing in my ears reaching an all time fever pitch. Slowly, as if the monster knew we were watching and just wanted to toy with us like a horror movie slasher, it turned its head a fraction towards us, the saplings partially obstructing the face. The tree’s exposed root hid most of our profile, exposing only our heads. And if we can’t see its eyes, then it shouldn’t be able to see us. I hoped.

  The monster's head snapped to another direction and it sprinted off to continue its hunt, its companions doing the same. Their footfalls grew distant as they raced away. Soon, their sounds were no longer heard; even still, I remained mute. Just when I was about to go mad, Eva brought me back from the fringe.

  “We’re okay,” she whispered in my, her voice having a calming effect.

  I gasped violently, expelling the stale air from my lungs. The encounter lasted only a minute, maybe a few seconds less, though it felt much, much longer. Certainly felt like I held my breath for some time, long enough to warrant me almost passing out. With one trembling hand, I wiped away the heavy sweat on my forehead, my other hand relaxing its death grip around the bokken.

  Taking one final deep breath to ease my trembling limbs, I detached myself from Eva. Together, we remained low to the forest floor. Eva peeked around the trunk on one side, and I the other. We were alone. For now.

  Once it looked clear in all directions, we huddled back together in the nook.

  Eva hugged her knees to her chest and stared into the dirt. “There’s more of them.”

  “Any idea how many?” I asked.

  “Six, maybe seven.”

  My jaw tensed and I shot a cautionary look over my shoulder. “Do you think they’ll come back?”

  “I don’t know.” She slapped the flat side of her knife a few times against her cheek as her mind worked. Confidence ever present in her sharp features, only a cloud of worry dulling her eyes. She pulled the whistle she got from the corpse out of her pocket and scrutinized it. “Someone sent them after us.”

  “Oh shit. Does that mean they’ll be back when they find our scent?”

  “If they tracked us by scent they would’ve been on us like white on snow.” Blonde locks swayed as she shook her head. “No. Corrupted beings become hollow husks driven only by primal rage, when someone’s not tugging on their strings. They lack the sort of thinking needed to discern scents from other scents to hunt. More like blindly attacking anything that isn’t them just for the sake of it. Who ever’s controlling them must’ve seen our tracks and sent them blindly in this direction.”

  Not exactly comforting to be reminded that creatures of the Null are blind killing machines, but knowing they can’t smell us was something, at least.

  “Tiny blessing,” I muttered. “How much further till we get near civilization?”

  Eva paused and thought. “Five hours, six at the most.”

  I sighed heavily then brushed aside the hair that fell into my eyes. “Let’s keep moving, then. These bastards are as subtle as a freight train, so we’ll see them before they see us.”

  Eva went into a crouch and peered around the trunk. She stood and stepped out into the open, panning the area with her gaze.

  Once the coast was clear, she turned to me and said, “Take your shirt off.” Then promptly removed hers.

  Even though fear actively coursed through me, my gaze went straight to Eva’s round, perky breasts. I blinked and forced myself to meet her gaze.

  “What?” I managed to ask.

  She rolled her eyes then dropped to a knee where she began to digging. After heaping a few handfuls of soil, she got to a layer of clay. Taking a handful of the brown mush, she kneaded it between her fingers and applied it to her tuni
c. She shot another glance as she worked.

  “If we’re going to continue, we need to blend in more. Nothing sticks out more in a forest than white.” She dropped another heavy glob onto her tunic. “And if whoever's controlling them did use our scents, then this’ll help mask it.”

  I pulled my shirt off and knelt down next to hear to grab some clay, trying very hard not to stare as she thoroughly coated her tunic. A very hard task considering her bouncing chest and toned figure. But with our lives on the line, I got myself thinking with the right head and went to work. By the time I finished, coating the front and back, the shirt matched the subdued reddish-brown hue of the forest.

  We changed into our makeshift camouflage; the shirt was heavier and stuck to my skin, but I dealt with it. Eva busied herself with a long stick, attaching one of her knives at the end with a strip of fabric she tore from her tunic to make a spear. Once she finished with that, she took more clay to apply to her hair, running her fingers through her golden mane until she looked like rusted brunette. Eva wiped some excess clay off her face then stood tall, spear in hand. After another slow three-sixty of the area, she turned to me.

  “From here on out we don’t speak anything above a whisper. We’ll move tree to tree. And, Al.” Eva paused. “Watch your step. If you’re louder than anything else in this forest, they’ll be on us. Got it?”

  I licked my lips and buried any of the fear threatening to surface. With my bokken held tightly at my side, I nodded.

  Eva set the pace and I followed as silently as I could. Every footfall was a cautious and calculated action, the forest floor being a minefield of sticks and dried leaves. However, much to my surprise, I slinked across the forest behind Eva like a fox. The lack of shoes, while uncomfortable, proved to work in my favor. Periodically I would swivel my head about, on the watch for anything that could be of threat. While watching the surroundings, I lost sight of my feet and stepped on twig only for it to pressed against the soft pad of my foot and the soil, remaining whole and silent.